As a teacher, I am after a healthy way of singing which can be applied to non-classical, as well as classical, music. I want my students to develop a technique that allows them flexibility.   Although most of the training I give at my studio draws on the body of standard classical practice, there are special conditions and requirements that Broadway and Pop singers must face (e.g., belting and constant use of the chest voice). However, many of these requirements are primarily a matter of style. Once students have acquired freedom through a healthy technique, they can sing in that style and achieve various vocal colors if so desired. Even though they have trained on classical foundations, they don’t have to sound like an opera singer!

--Stephanie Samaras

EDUCATION   Western Michigan University, B. Music, Voice Performance Major Indiana University, M. Music, Voice Performance Major     TEACHING POSITIONS   1978 to Present: Private Studio in New York City 1998 to Present: Voice Faculty; Collaborative Arts Project,                                NYU Tisch School of the Arts 1977-1978: Voices, Inc. (teaching & performing techniques in Boston Schools) 1975-1977: Teaching Assistant, School of Music, University of Indiana

Stephanie’s interests in a variety of musical styles has influenced her own singing career. With her formal education in classical music and with an uncle who sang at La Scala, she naturally found her way to opera. She has sung such roles as “Rosina” in The Barber of Seville and the title role in Carmen, and appeared with the Palm Beach Opera, Minnesota Opera, New Jersey State Opera, Greensboro Opera, Long Wharf Theatre, Ashlawn Music Festival, and with a number of New York City-based companies. She is also an active operetta singer, having sung as mezzo soloist with the New York Light Opera quartet since its inception in 1979 and performed on its numerous national tours, as well as in Canada, England and Scotland. As a recitalist she has been presented at Lincoln Center, La Maison Francaise at New York University, the Trinity Church Concert Series and the American Landmark Festivals. Her recital program, Spectrum: The Colors of Vocal Style, is designed to show how one voice can span styles from Handel to Sondheim. Stephanie also regularly performs two other original vocal concerts: Gershwin Galore!, a tribute to the American songmaster George Gershwin, and A Little Light Music, a duo recital of musical theatre and operetta standards, performed with her husband Ryan Allen, a Metropolitan Opera bass.

Stephanie travels around the world delivering guest lectures and masterclasses on her favorite topic, healthful singing of pop and musical theatre repertoire using applied classical vocal techniques. Below is a partial list of the conventions and universities who have requested Stephanie as a guest lecturer:   International Congress of Voice Teachers; Strasbourg, France NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) Nat’l Convention, Los Angeles NATS National Convention, San Diego National Vocal Symposium, Voice Foundation; Philadelphia, PA NATS Music Theater Workshop - SMU, Dallas NYSTA (New York Singing Teachers Association) Music Theater Workshop, NYC Texas Women’s University; Denton, TX (Lecturer in Residence) Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ NATS Winter Symposium, Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera Guild, NYC NATS Southern Region Convention; Arkedelphia, AR McPhail Center for the Arts/Minnesota Arts Western Michigan University; Kalamazoo, MI Marymount College, NYC Central College; Pella, IA SUNY; Potsdam, NY Valpraiso University; Valpraiso, IN Shorter College; Rome, GA Loyola College; Baltimore, MD (“The Rude Awakening!” audition realities) Otterbein College; Columbus, OH Utah Festival Opera (apprentice program); Logan, Utah Des Moines Metro Opera Festival (apprentice program); Indianola, IA Rochester Vocal Arts Collaborative; Rochester, NY Eastman School of Music; Rochester, NY (“Making the Song Your Own” workshop) NATS Anchorage, AK (masterclass and competition) Elderhostel Classes, VT Chapter (“The History of the Broadway Musical 1898-1990s”) NATS Intern Program, Master Teacher Westminster Choir College, Presenter, “Master Teachers of Singing Week” NATS Texoma Region Convention, Baylor University, Masterclasses/Adjudication

Professionals from the world of Broadway - among them directors Tommy Tune and Jeff Calhoun, and the casting agencies of Hughes/Moss and Johnson/Liff - frequently send singers to work with Stephanie. Her studio is constantly represented on and off Broadway, on national tours and on recordings. Her students have included Tony Award winner Scott Wise (who acknowledged Stephanie in his acceptance speech!), Broadway performer Evan Pappas (star of My Favorite Year and Parade), Patrick Swayze and his wife, actress Lisa Niemi, soap star Ricky Paull-Goldin (Another World, Days of Our Lives and also star of the Broadway revival of Grease!), Vanessa Ferlitto (CSI New York), Jennifer Garner (Ally McBeal and Alias), and others whose faces are familiar from the TV screen. Stephanie established her private studio more than two decades ago with students drawn from New York City’s “The Comic Strip.” Among those aspiring “funny people” who went on to success, with the benefit of vocal instruction, are standup comedian George Wallace, Carol Leifer (comedienne and Seinfeld writer), Mark Weiner (Weinerville Cable TV), Hiram Kasten (Seinfeld character) and the late comedian Dennis Wolfberg. Below is a partial list of Stephanie’s student representation in the world of musical theater . . . if you’ve seen a show in New York City, chances are you’ve seen Stephanie’s techniques in action!   A Chorus Line, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Funny Thing Happened..., Ain’t Broadway Grand, Bells Are Ringing, Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, Big, Blood Brothers, By Jeeves, Carrie, Cats, Chicago, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, City of Angels, Crazy for You, Damn Yankees, Fosse, Good Vibrations, Grease, Guys and Dolls, Gypsy, Harrigan and Hart, Hello Dolly, Jerome Robbins Broadway*, Kiss Me Kate, Legs Diamond, Les Miserables, Little Shop of Horrors, Mamma Mia!, Man Of La Mancha, Me and My Girl, My Favorite Year, Peter Pan, Phantom of the Opera, The Producers, Putting It Together, Saturday Night Fever, Showboat, Singing in the Rain, Song and Dance, The Sound of Music, State Fair, Steel Pier, Swing, The Tap Dance Kid, Victor/Victoria, Wicked, Will Rogers Follies, 110 in the Shade (NYC Opera), 1776, 42nd Street   Annie Warbucks, Boobs, Captains Courageous, Hannah Senesh, I Love My Wife, Tatterdemalion, The Taffetas   A Chorus Line, A Chorus Line (European), Animal Crackers, Blood Brothers, Cabaret, Carrie (European), Cats (European), Chicago, Crazy for You, Damn Yankees, Dreamgirls, Evita (European), Fiddler on the Roof, Follies (European), Grease, Gypsy, Jekyll and Hyde, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Les Miserables, My One and Only, Oklahoma (European), Peter Pan, Peter Pan (European), Pirantes of Penzance (London), The Producers, Ragtime, Saturday Night Fever, The Secret Garden, Showboat (European), Some Like It Hot, Song and Dance, Sophisticated Ladies, The Sound of Music (China), Sunset Boulevard, Tamara (European), West Side Story (European), Will Rogers Follies, The Wizard of Oz, The World Goes Round, 42nd Street   A Chorus Line, A Little Night Music (Houston Grand Opera), Amahl and the Night Visitors, And the World Goes ’Round, Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, Baby, By Jeeves, Cabaret, Chicago, Company, Convenience, Dames at Sea, Das Barbecu, Damn Yankees, Destert Song, Durante, Evita, Falsettos, The Fantasticks, Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello, Forever Plaid, Gotham, Grease, Harmony, Hello Dolly, Houdini, Jeeves, The King and I, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Little Shop of Horrors, Lucky Stiff**, Man of La Mancha, My Fair Lady, My One and Only, No No Nanette, Nunsense, On the Town, Pal Joey, Peter Pan, Pirates of Penzance, Promises Promises, The Secret Garden, Side by Side by Sondheim, South Pacific, Stardust, Sugar Babies, The Taffetas, Unsinkable Molly Brown, West Side Story, The Wizard of Oz, White Christmas, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, 42nd Street   * 1989 Tony Award Winner, Scott Wise (3x’s nominated) ** 1990 Helen Hayes Award Winner, Evan Pappas